> So will Obama, a person of color, dismantle the regional commands of the > so-called "Defense" Department? Will he suddenly reverse himself and not > support Israel, even though he was sympathetic to the recent U.S.-Israeli > attack on the Palestinians? Will Obama withdraw troops from Afghanistan or > from Germany or Japan or Colombia or Indonesia? Will Obama stop supporting the corporate exploitation of Central America? Comment I believe we are in for some policy shifts. Not because Obama is black. If anything the president is black because of policy shift. Obama is extremely astute and saw the possibility of winning President when no one on the left or right thought it possible two years ago, save a very few within his campaign. Obama is the most unflinching and coolest “muther***ker” I have every seen in my life. Within this unflinching cool is danger and opportunity. By policy shift is meant reforming the political relations between states, while leaving the primary social relations of capital intact. Capital cannot be reformed but political relations are always subject to shifts and political will. On the other hand a political law cannot overturn an economic law, that has not run the course of its own logic. Stalin himself could not overturn the law of value. Lenin did not even try. Yet policy shift is related to shifts in the daily operations of capital. Everyone has been trying to make heads or tails of "globalizations" and the reemergence what seems to be economic and political blocks, not seen 15 years ago. One of the indicators of policy shift is the maelstrom of protest created when Obama suggested sitting down with political leaders of Iran. This was a signal quickly withdrawn and then put forward again. This signal will continue to resurface no matter who leads the state department. The suggestion of sitting down with leaders of North Korea and Cuba, without prior conditions was also withdrawn from political view, but Obama understood what he had stated. What is somewhat interesting is the signals being sent from Cuba on the basis of its internal policy shifts. In the case of North Korea the gravitational pull, economic, political and historic is towards China and for reunification, which involves anti-China and pro-china forces, both pushing for reunification for different reasons. As the saying goes, America has skin in the game. I believe we should be prepared for a series of policy shifts over the next twenty years or so. As cool and unflinchingly sober and calculating Obama is, if he desired it, he could not simply dismantle regional commands of the Defense department. Politics do not operate on the basis of individual will. I do not suggest this is his desire. I do suggest one trying to change the agenda at a union meeting or at their local bingo club and experience the movement of real world politics and human subjective will. No one individual can dismantle such large military institutions without support from within the military and throughout the governing political institutions and bureaucracy. The immediate response to such an attempt would be an untimely death or a political/military coup. This is not to suggest supporting Obama or his administration. It is to say there is a level of politics immune to ideological declaration. In the case of Germany and Japan, US troops will be removed, in all probability, or as a plausible political scenario, when these peoples and their government demand it. It seems to me that there is a tendency to assign to the individual, a responsibility impossible for the individual - any individual, to carry out. For instance, President John Smith, a non-colored person could not dismantle a department of the defense department simply because he desired it or rather, because someone else desired it. America has a rather large Arab population, the largest outside the Middle East. I recall when Saddamn was welcomed into America, with celebrations and a recreational center was built in Dearborn bearing his name. Bush W. shifted policy. Shift happens and shift hit’s the fan. Then there was the questioning of Obama policy towards the war the state of Georgia launched, and the Russia state responded to. I recall Obama saying something that indicated a political shift, although I cannot recall what it was at the moment. When Bush W. was elected in 2004, there was a discussion of how much he would cut the federal deficit and budget. I wrote on the side that he would expand both, not because I have some unknown information, but because he could not rule without feeding the machine. Here is what scares the crap out of me about Obama on day two of his presidency. Obama spoke or said something about “doing something” to so-called entitlements like social security. He stated that everyone has to have some skin in the game of making America right. Tampering with Social Security other than expanding it and perhaps giving portions of these programs their own department, like Medicare, is political suicide. He will not last in office 6 months “messing wit” social security. I also detected a possibility of policy shift in terms of Afghanistan. When the talking heads of broadcast start questioning why we are there, policy shift is being discussed. If today is used as a beginning point and we drawn a line between now and the overthrow of the power of capital, we might need to think about a long series of conflicts and shifts. At least that is what I have told myself for the last 40 years. WL. **************From Wall Street to Main Street and everywhere in between, stay up-to-date with the latest news. (http://aol.com?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000023)
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